German Joys

Amis Insulting People

For purposes of clarity, Martin Amis, back when he was young, could insult with the best of them (in context, his quotation is a mea culpa for this phase).  Two examples, from a 1986 book of essays about the U.S. called The Moronic Inferno:

"Pretty Nancy Reagan sat down beside her husband. As I was soon to learn, her adoring, damp-eyed expression never changes when she is in public. Bathed in Ronnie's aura, she always looks like Bambi being reunited with her parents." (p.89)

On William Burroughs: "Most of Burroughs is trash, and lazily obsessive trash too -- you could chuck it all out and not diminish what status he has as a writer. But the good bits are good. Reading him is like staring for a week at a featureless sky; every few hours a bird will come into view, or if you're lucky, an aeroplane might climb past, but things remain meaningless and monotone. Then, without warning (and not for long, and for no coherent reason, and almost always in The Naked Lunch), something happens: abruptly the clouds grow warlike, and the air is full of portents." (p.144)

And for good measure, the Lonely Planet Guide to Germany calls Heino a "tranquilised albino Ken-doll."

Speaking of Germany, you may be asking yourself, 'hey, isn't this blog supposed to be about Germany?' Well yes, but really there's not much interesting going on in Germany these days, if I do say so myself. Coming up: a review of a Slovenian novel, and perhaps a few comments about Greece. Then back to Germany, I promise!

Quotes for the Day

Some good solid common sense from Australian ethicist John Mackie:

"It is much easier, and commoner, to display a self-sacrificing love for some of one's fellow men if one can combine this with hostility to others." 

-- J.L. Mackie, Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong (Penguin 1977), p. 132.

"People will be able more fully to get what they desire if they are made to desire what they are going to get."

-- Ibid., p. 147.